


Future Diva

by Lafaiette



Series: Fire Emblem Three Houses Ships [4]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Byleth is a disaster with kids, F/M, Marriage, Mentions of childbirth, Newborn Children, Post-Time Skip, but he's trying hard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:07:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23362195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lafaiette/pseuds/Lafaiette
Summary: “Why is she looking at me like that?” he asked, nervous, feeling like the students Ferdie and Dorothea had once been.“I believe she is curious.” Ferdie laughed softly, the colour of his long hair so similar to that of his daughter. “She is studying you.”Ferdinand and Dorothea just had a baby and they invited their Professor to meet her for the first time.But Byleth isn't the best with kids.
Relationships: Ferdinand von Aegir/Dorothea Arnault
Series: Fire Emblem Three Houses Ships [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1481567
Comments: 5
Kudos: 64





	Future Diva

Byleth wasn’t good with kids.

Ever since his early mercenary days spent at his father’s side, he had scared his peers, who saw nothing in his blank stare, couldn’t keep up with him when playing with wooden swords, didn’t understand his weird jokes, didn’t like his too-serious face which never smiled.

He was used to appearing so upsetting to their young minds even as an adult. He had seen some of the younger students and orphans at the Monastery squeal and cower before his gaze, despite his doing absolutely nothing frightening. He just  _ was  _ scary, that was all. It was a truth he had come to accept pretty soon.

But when news reached him that two his old students had had a baby together, the new heir of House Aegir, he couldn’t just send them a short message and some flowers and gifts.

He might look like a cold, unfeeling man (even though he was able to better express himself, now that his heart behaved like a heart for the first time in his life), but no way he would miss a chance to congratulate Ferdie and Dorothea.

Also, he was curious to see the baby – he just hoped he wouldn’t scare her (it was a little girl, apparently). But surely a baby so young wouldn’t even notice something odd in his eyes…? Surely a  _ baby  _ couldn’t even see that well.

He frowned. Before heading out, he would read more about newborns, he decided.

\- - -

He arrived at House Aegir a few days later, riding a sleepy horse and wearing dusty clothes, with leaves in his hair and mud on his boots. The maids who greeted him at the main doors were appalled by him, scrunching up their noses at his appearance, and not believing even for a second that he was the famous Byleth, strategist of Her Majesty the Empress, valuable ally of the Empire, ex-professor of the Officers Academy.

But when Ferdie noticed him from the top of the stairs and let out a happy shout, running towards him to hug him, all servants immediately bowed their heads, while sharing surprised and confused looks.

“Professor! Oh, I am so glad you could come!”

“I wouldn’t miss it.” Byleth’s smile was small, but warm and sincere.

“This way, this way! Dorothea is nursing the child.” Ferdie’s eyes shone with joy and pride. “She is such a beautiful little girl, Professor. She has my hair, but Dorothea’s eyes and  _ oh _ , she is a fairy, Professor, she truly is!”

He led Byleth through richly-decorated corridors, until they reached a large bedroom in the quietest part of the manor, the one that overlooked the gardens.

Dorothea was sitting up on the canopy bed at the centre of the room – she still looked a bit tired and pale, but her hair had been brushed and pinned expertly in a high bun (probably Ferdie’s doing, Byleth thought), and her smile was the biggest he had ever seen on her, as she sang to the cooing bundle in her bare arms.

She heard them enter and her smile turned into a grin when she saw her husband and Byleth.

“Professor, it’s so good to see you! Thank you so much for coming - I knew you would accept the invitation!”

She stopped nursing the child and adjusted the blanket she was wrapped in to show her to Byleth.

“Isn’t she beautiful?” she said softly, mother’s pride and love in her voice. “Her name is Vreneli.”

Byleth wasn’t an expert about babies, but he thought that one did look cute, with her big green eyes and apple-like cheeks. His smile grew a little as he nodded.

“Would you like to hold her, Professor?” Dorothea asked with an amused glint in her eyes, but also hope. Ferdinand beamed from where he was standing, right next to the bed.

“Please feel free to do it, Professor! She loves meeting new people.”

“Oh. Well…”

Before he could think of a proper reply, Dorothea gently, but firmly pushed the baby into his stiff arms, causing his back and neck to get stiff, too. He looked at his students with something akin to  _ fear  _ in his eyes – and while Ferdie was surprised to see him act so awkwardly, Dorothea chuckled.

“My, Professor, have you never held a baby before? Here, I will show you.”

No, he said, he had never been so close to a newborn before. Life as a mercenary hadn’t really led him and his father to be around many families and those they had worked for had had no reasons to let him hold their children.

He hadn’t even ever felt a desire to, to be honest. But now that his heart was alive, beating so quickly (and sometimes almost randomly) in his chest, he felt ready to face and try new things which had never appealed to him before.

Things like holding a babe, who was now staring at him with her large eyes and a pouting mouth.

“Why is she looking at me like that?” he asked, nervous, feeling like the students Ferdie and Dorothea had once been.

“I believe she is curious.” Ferdie laughed softly, the colour of his long hair so similar to that of his daughter. “She is studying you.”

And so Byleth studied her in return. Her face was a wonderful mix between Ferdie and Dorothea’s features, but there was something endearingly  _ impish  _ about her, too. A spark that would certainly become a confident, extrovert flame, powering her through life like a never-falling comet.

Byleth had never possessed the power to see the future – only the ability to return to the past -, but he was certain of what he was seeing in Vreneli right now. She reminded him of Sothis and he felt a bittersweet feeling flutter in his chest, right next to his heart.

When she started crying, probably upset by his stare, he panicked.

“Oh! Oh, no.” He swallowed, trying to lull her like he had seen Dorothea do. “What… What should I do?”

Vreneli cried harder, flailing her small fists, her cheeks turning a beet red, her nose filling with snot. Byleth made a weird face, too, and his heart started beating too fast, bothering him.

Before Ferdie and Dorothea could come to his aid, he pushed the baby back into her mother’s arms with a wheezing “Here!”.

His beloved students laughed and reassured him that it was normal, that Vreneli had probably just been surprised by the sudden change of person in front of her – Byleth knew they were right, but his heart still beat too erratically and he didn’t want to scare the poor kid again. Even though he was better at emotions now, his gaze was still somewhat blank and he was sure that was what had bothered the child so much.

He looked at her for the whole time, though, and Ferdie and Dorothea didn’t insist for him to hold her again. They talked about her, showed him the room they had prepared for when she would be older, asked him how things were going at the Palace.

And when the time came for him to depart, he accepted their invitation to stay there the night.

Vreneli returned his gaze from wherever she was – either in her mother or her father’s arms or in the exquisite cradle they had commissioned. She seemed calmer when he wasn’t the one holding her and she even smiled at him, once, kicking her short legs in her air.

Her gummy smile warmed his fluttering heart and when he tentatively reached out to touch her hand with his index finger, she grasped it with the strength of a future diva and never let go.

**Author's Note:**

> A gift for the wonderful [DiOPPIO](https://twitter.com/DiOPPIO) U v U Sweet Vreneli belongs to him!


End file.
